Nokia smartphone shipments fall off a cliff

The latest set of smartphone shipment figures out of IDC reveals that Samsung and Apple are doing quite well, while Nokia’s shipments fell off a cliff.

IDC found that Nokia’s smartphone shipments in Q2 dropped to just 10.2 million units, down from 16.7 million in 2011. Market share dwindled to 6.6 percent, down from 15.4 percent a year earlier. According to earlier estimates, Nokia sold about four million Lumia series WP7 phones. This makes it the biggest Windows Phone player, which would be a great thing if it weren’t for the fact that the Windows Phone market is tiny by any standard.

Nokia is even considering paying incentives to European carriers in return for exclusive Windows Phone 8 rights, which is a pretty controversial idea given Nokia’s financial woes.

“They have to win at the critical point of sale [in the store] and they are not winning it,” said Llamas.

He argues that Nokia needs to do more to push its phones in retail, as sales reps don’t like to spend half an hour educating customers about Windows Phone. They are much more likely to sell them Android or Apple phones just to avoid the hassle.